Border Patrol has lots of agents _ in wrong places

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Agents at the San Diego Border Patrol station are doing long-distance interviews via video in response to the recent dramatic increase of Central Americans crossing the border in Texas.

The Border Patrol doesn’t have staff to process all the immigrants crossing in the Rio Grande Valley, but faraway colleagues have time to spare and reel through a long list of questions.

Remote video processing, which was introduced last year in El Paso, Texas, and extended to California, reveals a perpetual predicament that has long bedeviled the Border Patrol.

Many agents wind up stationed in places where crossing activity is slowest because the Border Patrol struggles to keep up with constantly shifting migration patterns.